Great information. I prefer solitude and try my best to avoid the shelters. A positive attitude and plenty of patience is the only way to deal with the social aspect of the AT. Thanks for the thought provoking video.
+Sleeves I honestly never had a bad social experience on the AT. I've even had to walk newbies to the nearest watering hole and filter water for them. No one but boy scout troop leaders have ever given me shit.
This aspect is the one that has made me have second thoughts about doing the AT. I know that most of the trails have that hippie/ hipster party animal crap culture but it seems like it is more prevalent on the AT. I simply don't wish to engage and with more and more people making attempts to do these trails, it seems harder to avoid. I have three years sobriety and hate to judge anyone for wanting to enjoy themselves. But to me, getting trashed and obnoxious and loud isn't what nature is about and I could care less about culture. I might be better off doing the Ozark Highland Trail. I'm pretty sure I would be left alone there. Love your videos by the way.
Check out my video on flip-flop hikes if you haven't yet. If we head north from Harpers Ferry WV in April or May, our chances of meeting northbound thru hikers automatically fall by 50 percent. That's because the AT Conservancy says about half of those people quit every year before they get to Harpers Ferry. Also, a significant number of them won't get to Harpers Ferry until June, so those will be behind us at least a while. I commend you for your three years' sobriety and wish you well on your future hikes. And thanks a million for being a viewer!
Jason, Congrats on three years sobriety. My experience is hiking 27 years on the AT usually once a year for 4 - 6 days. Also usually in late June or July. My experience of seeing folks with weed or drink is almost non existent. actually only once. One other time I went into a shelter and two guys there were obvious weed types, though nice guys, and I ate supper and went on down the trail to stay in my tarp. In the one experience there was a group of 5 young guys, nice enough, and that evening they asked me if I minded if they smoked weed. I said no and 4 of them passed around a joint and a bottle. So out of 27 years that is all. I see more mentions of drugs and drinking on videos though not that much considering all of the thousands of folks on the trail. Happy trails and God bless.
I call it the Hippie Hiker Culture. I was into it when I was in my 20's... but now that I'm in my late 30's I'm more interested in getting away from the yuppie college partiers and the homeless bums that wander the AT. I worked as a park ranger for the NPS at Gettysburg National Military Park for a while and during the summer we would see hordes of AT hikers file through the visitors center looking for everything from a meal and water... to strip joints and drugs (for some reason they all thought I was the guy to ask). My wife and I owned a farm just out of town and for a while we opened our land to AT hikers to camp on but we had to stop that after a few years due to the rowdy parties and threats from the city... it got to the point that we could not leave our house during the warm months as AT hikers would trash our property and break into our home. We have since moved to the mid-west and have moved on to lesser traveled trails and found the hiker culture to be much better away from the AT... I hope someday to thru the AT again... but there so many areas of the county to hike that are so much better and safer that I don't see my wife and I returning to AT anytime soon. A shame really....
+Dynamic Prepper Damn Dynamic Preppe, I'm so looking forward to my thru hike, but I have to wait a few years till I retire. Hope the A-Holes of the world refrain from totally trashing the AT and the surrounding towns so the Trail and the good points of it remain for me and others looking to hike it. Thanks for your honest responce
+Dynamic Prepper Sorry to hear that. Truely. I've been to the AT and had more problems from the boy scouts than druggies and homeless. I've had more bad experiences with boy scout troops than druggies and homeless. I've gotten to the point where I poured the rest of my water on a fire and chewed out a scout leader until we almost fist fought because their smoke was in my camp in a no fire area. I had a fever of 102 for 6 days right after that incident and I had to hike through it. I had no idea drugs and homeless were a problem. I've hiked from georgia to virginia. I can forgive pot and alcohol, but I never saw any indecent people. I'm glad you are happy elsewhere. Stay happy, thats what it is all about.
I have never hiked the AT to completion but I have hiked hundreds of miles of it and I have never had any issues at all. I will admit most of my hiking has taken place on the northern part of the trail in NE maybe by then the parting has been worn out.
Fun seeing my old comment here. I’m now 700+ miles into a flip flop hike and luckily haven’t seen anything too bad. Have seen some pretty grumpy hikers and loud Boy Scouts, but the most annoying thing has been more subtle - hikers trying to draw you into their competitive mindset with questions like “where did you start today”, “how many miles did you do today”? Most hikers out there now seem to be happy to have become part of yet another of society’s rat races. And of course I don’t want a part of it, partly because I am slower and purposefully going at a leisurely comfortable pace. I am definitely an introvert and the last thing I have energy for at the end of a day is social interaction. I have found the best thing to do is to always setup my tent, even if at a shelter. Glorious tent! I have also been cooking my food away from the shelter, and get all the alone time I want.
700 miles -- good job! My experience matches yours - If I pitch the tent and stay close to it, I get some solitude. Keep hikin' and thanks for being a great viewer!
Just stumbled across your videos & have watched quite a few. Don't know if you mean to be funny but you make me laugh. Maybe, it's the same sense of humor. "Surround myself with stuff like a junkyard" & thank goodness, that guy didn't get hit by a dump truck. I really like your videos they are more old school. Not all flashy & dumb. I'm actually learning.
Found your channel and I'm enjoying it. I used to do a lot more camping when I was younger and haven't given up yet. I live north of the NH White Mountains. Did a lot of section hikes but never felt the need to do the whole thing at once. Really fond of Western Maine, especially during off season. Sometimes I would not see another soul.
Thanks for a complete and well balanced treatment of this subject. I am camping in remote areas where no other people are present, and the solitude is part of the pleasure. I suspect a SOBO might be more to my liking.
The worst things I have encountered on the AT are graffiti at shelters, hikers barking dogs and a group of teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs well into the night at a shelter. I've heard horror stories from other hikers and hostel owners worse than mine. The hiker sunbathing nude at a hostel, drunk and loud hikers, etc. By and large the hikers I have met are like the fine folks you mentioned in this video. What really impresses me is how well I bonded with hikers decades younger than me.
+Appalachian Swede I can't quite make up my mind about hostels. I stayed at one I really liked and one I didn't like so much. I suppose they all are different in some ways. And thanks again for watching!
tom jackson I had several young hikers help me out with advice. When I announced I had just purchased a new tent one young woman offered to show me how to set it up. This was at Uncle Johnny's Hostel in Erwin, TN last May.
+North Country Outdoor Guys For myself, the biggest hassle was learning how to use a sewing machine. Once I got the thread tension settings right for nylon upholstery thread and sil nylon, I left them there. That made things easier. And thanks again for watching!
Well done,I like your " tell it like it is approach " very much the same view a lot of us have. As in life outside the AT most people are good at heart,but get a little sideways having fun on the trail.
I'm looking forward to the next video about that kickass tarp tent. I hope you are able to show more of the inside, I'm curious to know how you deal with the dirt/mud/water to stay clean and comfortable while you hang out in your portable man cave :).
+Andre Jolicoeur Until at least the late 1960s, any tent you could find small enough for backpacking was canvas, heavy and had no floor. They slept atop groundsheets then and so do I. Black plastic I got at a farm implement store. I have some smaller pieces I put gear on. No matter what tent we use, we'd better be able to avoid mud and standing water. Somebody or something has to do a lot of walking around to generate real mud. Otherwise, except for a marsh or creek, I've never seen much of it in the eastern woods. My video "Bed time on the Appalachian Trail" tells how to avoid standing water and running ground water. In using floorless tents in the woods since childhood, I have never seen rain do anything except drip off the bottom of the walls and soak into the ground. If I had not spent all that time in the cold and snow of late fall, I might be using the same tents as everybody else. And thanks again for watching.
Thank you for another great video! Interacting with other hikers is my biggest worry apart from pack weight. I've never been into that "hippie culture" and I don't want to participate in some sort of Burning Man thing outside. Also not interested in comparing gear on the trail or comparing hiking pace or whatnot. In any case, thanks for the video! I always enjoy your videos - they're packed with no-nonsense information and they're free from all the trendy music / drone footage / other random fluff. You ought to put together a book - I'm sure you could simply transcribe all your videos and organize them by chapter. Do you write scripts and read from them to make videos? Always seem so well-rehearsed. In any case, if you ever end up writing a book, make sure YOU are the one to narrate the audiobook version.
Thanks for your kind message. RUclips channels that deliver a lot of information quickly - like Vsauce, Kurzgesagt, the Scishow, Today I Found Out, and others - are scripted. Some use prompters. If I was selling my quick wit, charming personality, and fun with pets or whatever, I would just turn the camera on. I plan a section hike in September - assuming I don't need any more surgeries - and I will just turn the camera on then. My intelligent demeanor (if I have one) will go out the window then, I expect. My career is as a writer and editor, so I use those skills. What I don't write out in advance has heavily edited audio. I use a multi-track recording program. If I did this stuff in one take it would have a lot of mistakes in it. I certainly will consider your book suggestion. And thanks a million for being a great viewer!
When you say people were doing drugs, are you referring to pot, or are there hard drugs on the train? (That doesn't sound conducive to hiking long distances...).
Plenty of people talk about marijuana on the trail. Besides that and alcohol, I have never heard any hiker refer to other drug use. And thanks for watching.
Interesting take on lots of people. I'm used to about 10-25 people being around on camping trips. More than that I think I'm in a city. I don't have any weapons, but laws tend to stop law abiding citizens, not criminals.
+rutabagasteu Probably most bad behavior on the AT - what bad behavior there is - can be attributed to people who just fail to stop and think. Again, in my experience any kind of bad behavior was the exception, not the rule. And thanks again for watching!
I'm planning on solo hiking from Wind Gap Pa up to Mount Katahdin starting in mid May next year. Do you think I'll experience many crowded areas? I'm hoping most of the nobos from Georgia will be weeded out by then.
I think your hope will be realized. It's often said half don't make it past Harpers Ferry. Those who make it to PA by May either started in dead of winter, or are hard-working and focused, or all three. All of them by then can be expected to go to bed at a reasonable hour. And thanks for watching!
excellent points Flatbroke, I have a question about weapons on the AT, I hike in many places that have bear problems and my brother and I always carry a side arm. What is the frequency of armed AT hikers? I haven't heard much about this. Also what might be the attitude of hikers to an armed hiker?
+Mike Conn I have never seen an AT hiker admit he or she was carrying a gun. Upon learning someone has one, some other hikers probably wouldn't care but some probably would not like it. Have you seen the stories about visitors to New Jersey carrying a gun (legal in their home state) in their car and getting arrested for a felony in New Jersey? The AT goes through NJ. The laws there are complex, I have read, and no way could I predict what might or might not get some visitor in a nasty legal mess in NJ. And thanks for watching.
+flatbrokeoutside, just crossing some state lines could be a Federal Offence, better check it out with a good lawyer who has kept up with the fast changing gun laws., Not an internet lawyer, very easy to get into trouble with a gun today, very, very hard and costly to get out of trouble.
+Mike Conn Most States' concealed carry permits require that you NOT show or display the concealed firearm. Likewise, it is imprudent to talk about being armed among strangers.
Do you get colder in your tarp than in a regular tent. I am considering using my fly and footprint only and using it like a tarp to cut down on weight.
No, I don't get colder in the tarp tent. Because they are floorless, I sometimes light a candle inside and it has definitely cut the chill a bit in cold weather. Will you test your fly-footprint plan close to home? Even one use can give us a good idea of a piece of gear will perform. And thanks for watching!
I will be visiting the AT in Sept. We would like to do a thru hike but I have never had that much freedom from work and family. My girlfriend will be hiking with me and she also said that she has always had too many responsibilities to take half a year off. I suspect that many of the hikers are being supported by parents. We are both in our 40s and I suspect our trail names would be grandpa and grandma. Could you give me a idea of how many people like us who hike the AT.
The AT Conservancy website says that in 2014, 2,500 people started a thru hike. Most of them go northbound and the crowded conditions at the trail's southern end in early spring get a lot of attention. And a considerable percentage of those hikers are in their 20s. Not all, however - many are 40 or older, or retired. Probably the young folks gain more new friends and move in larger groups than the older folks. But with every step northward, their numbers dwindle. The ATC says only 653 finished the entire trail in 2014. The ATC also says at least 3 million people use the AT annually. The ratio of 'other' hikers to thru hikers who finish is therefore in excess of 4,500 to 1. I have section hiked in September and met only other section hikers or day hikers, many of them 40 or older. Along most of the trail in late summer, only southbound thru hikers are still at it and their numbers are not high. Those NB thru hikers who manage to do 700 or so miles are the hard working types and I found they tend to stick to themselves and are otherwise courteous. Some of them are probably too tired to say much. The same applies to most young section hikers I met. I plan to do a video later on how great section hiking is, and the great benefits it can have for those of us who have to keep holding down a job at home. Have a great time on the AT! And thanks for watching!
Since watching these videos and the hiker trash videos I have come to realize that with 4 kids, a wife and bills I would be unable to even section hike. Still this has inspired me so much that I am planning a weekend and week hiking trip for myself and my son not more than two hours from house here in Louisiana. Who knew Louisiana had hills and rocks to climb! Saw some pictures and the Kisatchie National Forest is a beautiful place to hike and camp. Flatbrokeoutside thanks for the videos and inspiration!!!
i have watch a few video's of 411 missing people and some are on the AP trail just wondering have you developed a opinion or never seen anything out of the normal ? thanks,BF
+B Footer My opinion is if we stick to the trail on the AT, we should have no fear of disappearing. BUT: If we wander into the trees in some heavily wooded wilderness areas, it's easy to get lost unless we take conscious precautions in advance to avoid it. Easy. And some of those areas are so vast it might take a long time before our corpse is discovered. I looked at the 411 website and noted one book has a chapter on hunters disappearing in Ontario. I hunted 8 years in northern Ontario, making at least one trip a year, up to three weeks at a time. I got lost in a forest covering about 4,000 acres and made it out by the skin of my teeth. If I hadn't made it out when I did, my skull still might be lying out there. I will do a video on this later. In the same area at a different time, another hunter got lost in a forest that covered 600 square miles of nothing, in freezing temperatures. I was camping the same night he disappeared, not too far from where he entered the woods. He had been put in a tree stand by some guides and they found his body two days later. I'll do a video on that story, too. It would be a bad idea to wander deep in the woods along the AT, even if we had a map and a compass and an accurate idea where we are. Not all areas along the AT have cell phone signals. I recently saw the claim that hundreds of people are currently missing along the AT. I checked some databases and found nothing to suggest the number is anywhere that high. Hope this helps and thanks for watching.
From my research only 7 of the AT's 13 states honors concealed carry permits, 6 states do not! Pretty much any state North of PA is no go for firearms. I was just curious, I know it is a touchy subject with many hikers, I will do more research and post any new findings. Be safe all. and Thanks
+John Davis Well John growing up in south philadelphia tends to make a person a bit paranoid. Also I have been on trails and have seen plenty of Bear, and Wolf tracks, did I mention paranoid, And Finally I am still on the fence on the matter myself, hence the question to our dear "Flatbroke'" to enlist the help of more advanced hikers.... so any helpful advice would be appreciated...
Sorry if I sounded a little alarmed at first via my remark. Its not my place to judge. All that being said.... If you keep it properly hidden then the only person who will ever know your packing is you. Theres a 99.9999% chance you will never need it on the AT. Bears are acclimated to hikers now and either run or look at you like your stupid but actual bear attacks that have resulted in major injury or death are unheard of. As far as your fellow hikers, yeah theres some nutjobs, even more now, I believe due to Bill Brysons book being turned into a movie (A Walk In The Woods). I've heard of only two accounts of hiker on hiker violence in the 10 plus years I have been involved in section hiking, being a Trail Angel and following the forums. Both incidents happened within the hikers "hiking group" and one was over theft and one was over a women. Lastly, weight on the trail is your enemy. I dont know what piece your thinking of bringing but steel is heavy. Bullets add weight too. Sounds silly but after your first 100 miles I promise you will re-evaluate your gear and start ditching things you hadn't used to that point. The feeling of personal safety is priceless. If packing is what you need to do to feel safe in the backwoods then far be it me to dictate what you can or cannot do. Just think about what you would do if you did have to discharge it. How would you handle it if you had to shoot another hiker on the trail for whatever reason and there were no witnesses to backup your story.
I apologize - I was making a bad joke. The truth is I met these folks only very briefly and I had no plans at the time of putting their faces in videos so I didn't ask their permission. I feel it would be rude to show their faces, especially the kid who was really drunk. Consider that some thru hikers with youtube channels were hiking with partners but some never showed the hiking partner.
I appreciate the compliment, but from what I can see on the commercial market floorless designs aren't terribly popular. In my "Homemade tent" video I explain why I said goodbye to tents with floors. And thanks a million for watching!
what we are looking at, here, is a game changer....it just may be that more and more are making the switch....dont give up your dream....after all you may be just ahead of the curve....so to speak...
lol..weed is easier to find than you think.. i know many growers in maine, Massechusettes, pennsylvania,virginia,north carolina,georgia,tennessee....and i live 3000 miles away...some of thse states ive never even been to..but the cannabis community is world wide and small..so we all know each other.
tom jackson did your gf leave you for a stoner? cause im a stoner and i dont do any of those things..you got some hatred toward people who use a natural plant..idk where it comes from but you need to work on it..
yeah i guess you havent met smart stoners..they do exist..one of my good buddies is a dentist.my brother is a civil engineer ..i am a cannabis breeder and seed developer. i created my branding web page and strains of cannabis for different flavor and high profiles..but i guess im just some dumb stoner and so are my uccessful stoner ganjaprenuirs and friends.. ca2akgenetics.com you my friend have a very narrow mind.. my dad also owned a multi million dollar multi media production company out of minneapolis. he enjoys cannabis..fuck man i could list hundreds of very intelligent successful people who use cannabis. BTW stupid people are stupid..regardless..if they use cannabis or not...so the fact they use cannabis is no real gage of it makes someone stupid or if they are stupid to begin with.
i dont really get stoned.. i use high CBD cannabis mostly.. once your endo cannabinoid system is fully activated you dont get the "high" sensation like you are thinking..
Good stuff to know. I'm planning/training for next year and while I am definitely a social creature, I tire of others quickly (High IQ + Bipolar II = Functioning Sociopath!). I want to do this BY myself, FOR myself.
I think the founding fathers would be ashamed of that sign at 11 :45. So much nanny state authoritarian bs. Early explorers didn't ask for a permit or permission to hunt and make a fire.
+flatbrokeoutside I don't mind a little socialism, I was kidding, I'm as Sanders supporter. Which brings to mind to ask do people ever get into nasty political discussions while hiking or is that left behind in "real" world? Seems to me that national parks, state parks, nature preserves, etc are all a little socialistic ... and they are a good thing. If we did not have them we would all be the poorer off and their would be no trails at all. But my experience in the South is that there are an awful lot of rather extreme right-wingers there ... but do they ever make it to the trails?
I can't imagine starting out in the spring in Georgia with a mob of people. So here's this long line of hikers going up the first mountain and so on for miles? For the first hundred miles or so at every sunset dozens of campers prepare for the night. That doesn't sound like a vacation getaway. ... But I would not mind a certain amount of socializing as long as it were meaningful talk. I can't stand hippies and tattoo advocates though.
The AT Conservancy's voluntary thru-hiker registration page is designed to show the number of people signed up to leave Springer on each day. They don't leave it up year-round, but in January '19 it looks like this -- atcamp.org/atthruhikerreports.cfm -- The number of starts really falls off after April 1. And thanks again for watching!
I go to the woods to avoid people
Great information. I prefer solitude and try my best to avoid the shelters. A positive attitude and plenty of patience is the only way to deal with the social aspect of the AT. Thanks for the thought provoking video.
+Sleeves Good observation and thanks again for watching!
+Sleeves I honestly never had a bad social experience on the AT. I've even had to walk newbies to the nearest watering hole and filter water for them. No one but boy scout troop leaders have ever given me shit.
Without a doubt your AT videos are the most informative of any I've seen. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the endorsement and thanks a million for watching!
This aspect is the one that has made me have second thoughts about doing the AT. I know that most of the trails have that hippie/ hipster party animal crap culture but it seems like it is more prevalent on the AT. I simply don't wish to engage and with more and more people making attempts to do these trails, it seems harder to avoid. I have three years sobriety and hate to judge anyone for wanting to enjoy themselves. But to me, getting trashed and obnoxious and loud isn't what nature is about and I could care less about culture. I might be better off doing the Ozark Highland Trail. I'm pretty sure I would be left alone there. Love your videos by the way.
Check out my video on flip-flop hikes if you haven't yet. If we head north from Harpers Ferry WV in April or May, our chances of meeting northbound thru hikers automatically fall by 50 percent. That's because the AT Conservancy says about half of those people quit every year before they get to Harpers Ferry. Also, a significant number of them won't get to Harpers Ferry until June, so those will be behind us at least a while. I commend you for your three years' sobriety and wish you well on your future hikes. And thanks a million for being a viewer!
Jason, Congrats on three years sobriety. My experience is hiking 27 years on the AT usually once a year for 4 - 6 days. Also usually in late June or July. My experience of seeing folks with weed or drink is almost non existent. actually only once. One other time I went into a shelter and two guys there were obvious weed types, though nice guys, and I ate supper and went on down the trail to stay in my tarp. In the one experience there was a group of 5 young guys, nice enough, and that evening they asked me if I minded if they smoked weed. I said no and 4 of them passed around a joint and a bottle. So out of 27 years that is all. I see more mentions of drugs and drinking on videos though not that much considering all of the thousands of folks on the trail. Happy trails and God bless.
Honestly, your voice in your videos sounds like a wacky fire-and-brimstone radio preacher. It's pretty awesome. Subscribed.
+heretolevitateme Please turn your hymnal to page 45 and thanks for subbin'.
I call it the Hippie Hiker Culture. I was into it when I was in my 20's... but now that I'm in my late 30's I'm more interested in getting away from the yuppie college partiers and the homeless bums that wander the AT. I worked as a park ranger for the NPS at Gettysburg National Military Park for a while and during the summer we would see hordes of AT hikers file through the visitors center looking for everything from a meal and water... to strip joints and drugs (for some reason they all thought I was the guy to ask). My wife and I owned a farm just out of town and for a while we opened our land to AT hikers to camp on but we had to stop that after a few years due to the rowdy parties and threats from the city... it got to the point that we could not leave our house during the warm months as AT hikers would trash our property and break into our home. We have since moved to the mid-west and have moved on to lesser traveled trails and found the hiker culture to be much better away from the AT... I hope someday to thru the AT again... but there so many areas of the county to hike that are so much better and safer that I don't see my wife and I returning to AT anytime soon. A shame really....
+Dynamic Prepper Thank for sharing your experience and thanks for watching!
+Dynamic Prepper Damn Dynamic Preppe, I'm so looking forward to my thru hike, but I have to wait a few years till I retire. Hope the A-Holes of the world refrain from totally trashing the AT and the surrounding towns so the Trail and the good points of it remain for me and others looking to hike it. Thanks for your honest responce
+Dynamic Prepper Sorry to hear that. Truely. I've been to the AT and had more problems from the boy scouts than druggies and homeless. I've had more bad experiences with boy scout troops than druggies and homeless. I've gotten to the point where I poured the rest of my water on a fire and chewed out a scout leader until we almost fist fought because their smoke was in my camp in a no fire area. I had a fever of 102 for 6 days right after that incident and I had to hike through it. I had no idea drugs and homeless were a problem. I've hiked from georgia to virginia. I can forgive pot and alcohol, but I never saw any indecent people.
I'm glad you are happy elsewhere. Stay happy, thats what it is all about.
I have never hiked the AT to completion but I have hiked hundreds of miles of it and I have never had any issues at all. I will admit most of my hiking has taken place on the northern part of the trail in NE maybe by then the parting has been worn out.
As ever, excellent discussion with pertinent, concise, detailed examples.
+Random Button Pusher Thanks again for watching!
Fun seeing my old comment here. I’m now 700+ miles into a flip flop hike and luckily haven’t seen anything too bad. Have seen some pretty grumpy hikers and loud Boy Scouts, but the most annoying thing has been more subtle - hikers trying to draw you into their competitive mindset with questions like “where did you start today”, “how many miles did you do today”? Most hikers out there now seem to be happy to have become part of yet another of society’s rat races. And of course I don’t want a part of it, partly because I am slower and purposefully going at a leisurely comfortable pace.
I am definitely an introvert and the last thing I have energy for at the end of a day is social interaction. I have found the best thing to do is to always setup my tent, even if at a shelter. Glorious tent! I have also been cooking my food away from the shelter, and get all the alone time I want.
700 miles -- good job! My experience matches yours - If I pitch the tent and stay close to it, I get some solitude. Keep hikin' and thanks for being a great viewer!
Just stumbled across your videos & have watched quite a few. Don't know if you mean to be funny but you make me laugh. Maybe, it's the same sense of humor. "Surround myself with stuff like a junkyard" & thank goodness, that guy didn't get hit by a dump truck. I really like your videos they are more old school. Not all flashy & dumb. I'm actually learning.
I have been accused of being a smart aleck on purpose. Glad you like the videos and thanks for being a viewer!
Found your channel and I'm enjoying it. I used to do a lot more camping when I was younger and haven't given up yet. I live north of the NH White Mountains. Did a lot of section hikes but never felt the need to do the whole thing at once. Really fond of Western Maine, especially during off season. Sometimes I would not see another soul.
Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks for watching!
Thanks for a complete and well balanced treatment of this subject. I am camping in remote areas where no other people are present, and the solitude is part of the pleasure. I suspect a SOBO might be more to my liking.
+tom jackson Glad you like the video and thanks again for watching!
The worst things I have encountered on the AT are graffiti at shelters, hikers barking dogs and a group of teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs well into the night at a shelter. I've heard horror stories from other hikers and hostel owners worse than mine. The hiker sunbathing nude at a hostel, drunk and loud hikers, etc. By and large the hikers I have met are like the fine folks you mentioned in this video. What really impresses me is how well I bonded with hikers decades younger than me.
+Appalachian Swede I can't quite make up my mind about hostels. I stayed at one I really liked and one I didn't like so much. I suppose they all are different in some ways. And thanks again for watching!
Yes, they are different. I get feedback from other hikers I meet on the AT. I've stayed at four so far and all have been good experiences.
tom jackson I had several young hikers help me out with advice. When I announced I had just purchased a new tent one young woman offered to show me how to set it up. This was at Uncle Johnny's Hostel in Erwin, TN last May.
Appalachian Snapshot I was 18 when I thru hiked and some of the people I became closest to we're seniors. That's why the trail is so great though
I really your style, take on the trail and general approach to gear and life!! Newly subbed!! Thanks again and can’t wait for more vids!!
Another great video. I look forward to the video on your shelter. If its not too complex to make I may give it a shot.
+North Country Outdoor Guys For myself, the biggest hassle was learning how to use a sewing machine. Once I got the thread tension settings right for nylon upholstery thread and sil nylon, I left them there. That made things easier. And thanks again for watching!
Well done,I like your " tell it like it is approach " very much the same view a lot of us have. As in life outside the AT most people are good at heart,but get a little sideways having fun on the trail.
+Barry Weigle I think you're right. And thanks for watching!
I'm looking forward to the next video about that kickass tarp tent. I hope you are able to show more of the inside, I'm curious to know how you deal with the dirt/mud/water to stay clean and comfortable while you hang out in your portable man cave :).
+Andre Jolicoeur Until at least the late 1960s, any tent you could find small enough for backpacking was canvas, heavy and had no floor. They slept atop groundsheets then and so do I. Black plastic I got at a farm implement store. I have some smaller pieces I put gear on. No matter what tent we use, we'd better be able to avoid mud and standing water. Somebody or something has to do a lot of walking around to generate real mud. Otherwise, except for a marsh or creek, I've never seen much of it in the eastern woods. My video "Bed time on the Appalachian Trail" tells how to avoid standing water and running ground water. In using floorless tents in the woods since childhood, I have never seen rain do anything except drip off the bottom of the walls and soak into the ground. If I had not spent all that time in the cold and snow of late fall, I might be using the same tents as everybody else. And thanks again for watching.
I love your videos. I enjoy all of them.
Thanks again for watching!
Hey man great videos!!!!! Starting my thur-hike in may cant wait!!!!!
+Damoni Cruz Excellent! Will you be posting any videos? Thanks for watching!
Thank you for another great video! Interacting with other hikers is my biggest worry apart from pack weight. I've never been into that "hippie culture" and I don't want to participate in some sort of Burning Man thing outside. Also not interested in comparing gear on the trail or comparing hiking pace or whatnot.
In any case, thanks for the video! I always enjoy your videos - they're packed with no-nonsense information and they're free from all the trendy music / drone footage / other random fluff. You ought to put together a book - I'm sure you could simply transcribe all your videos and organize them by chapter.
Do you write scripts and read from them to make videos? Always seem so well-rehearsed. In any case, if you ever end up writing a book, make sure YOU are the one to narrate the audiobook version.
Thanks for your kind message. RUclips channels that deliver a lot of information quickly - like Vsauce, Kurzgesagt, the Scishow, Today I Found Out, and others - are scripted. Some use prompters. If I was selling my quick wit, charming personality, and fun with pets or whatever, I would just turn the camera on. I plan a section hike in September - assuming I don't need any more surgeries - and I will just turn the camera on then. My intelligent demeanor (if I have one) will go out the window then, I expect. My career is as a writer and editor, so I use those skills. What I don't write out in advance has heavily edited audio. I use a multi-track recording program. If I did this stuff in one take it would have a lot of mistakes in it. I certainly will consider your book suggestion. And thanks a million for being a great viewer!
One reason I'm thinking of doing SB or the Pacific Crest Trail. NOT for the party crowd, or crowds- seclusion is a beautiful thing!!!!
Hiking alone never bothered me on the AT. And thanks for watching!
Great Information! Thank You!
Glad you liked it and thanks again for watching!
When you say people were doing drugs, are you referring to pot, or are there hard drugs on the train? (That doesn't sound conducive to hiking long distances...).
Plenty of people talk about marijuana on the trail. Besides that and alcohol, I have never heard any hiker refer to other drug use. And thanks for watching.
Interesting take on lots of people. I'm used to about 10-25 people being around on camping trips. More than that I think I'm in a city. I don't have any weapons, but laws tend to stop law abiding citizens, not criminals.
+rutabagasteu Probably most bad behavior on the AT - what bad behavior there is - can be attributed to people who just fail to stop and think. Again, in my experience any kind of bad behavior was the exception, not the rule. And thanks again for watching!
I'm planning on solo hiking from Wind Gap Pa up to Mount Katahdin starting in mid May next year. Do you think I'll experience many crowded areas? I'm hoping most of the nobos from Georgia will be weeded out by then.
I think your hope will be realized. It's often said half don't make it past Harpers Ferry. Those who make it to PA by May either started in dead of winter, or are hard-working and focused, or all three. All of them by then can be expected to go to bed at a reasonable hour. And thanks for watching!
I had no idea you had no idea ... I thought you always knew!
+David Nutty When it comes to reefer 2015 style, I am adrift in a sea of ignorance. And thanks again for watching!
excellent points Flatbroke, I have a question about weapons on the AT, I hike in many places that have bear problems and my brother and I always carry a side arm. What is the frequency of armed AT hikers? I haven't heard much about this. Also what might be the attitude of hikers to an armed hiker?
+Mike Conn I have never seen an AT hiker admit he or she was carrying a gun. Upon learning someone has one, some other hikers probably wouldn't care but some probably would not like it. Have you seen the stories about visitors to New Jersey carrying a gun (legal in their home state) in their car and getting arrested for a felony in New Jersey? The AT goes through NJ. The laws there are complex, I have read, and no way could I predict what might or might not get some visitor in a nasty legal mess in NJ. And thanks for watching.
+flatbrokeoutside, just crossing some state lines could be a Federal Offence, better check it out with a good lawyer who has kept up with the fast changing gun laws., Not an internet lawyer, very easy to get into trouble with a gun today, very, very hard and costly to get out of trouble.
+Mike Conn Most States' concealed carry permits require that you NOT show or display the concealed firearm. Likewise, it is imprudent to talk about being armed among strangers.
'And that, is the sum total of the offensive behavior i've seen on the at.' Subscribed.
Thanks for subbing!
revelry and dope smoking! LOL
Do you get colder in your tarp than in a regular tent. I am considering using my fly and footprint only and using it like a tarp to cut down on weight.
No, I don't get colder in the tarp tent. Because they are floorless, I sometimes light a candle inside and it has definitely cut the chill a bit in cold weather. Will you test your fly-footprint plan close to home? Even one use can give us a good idea of a piece of gear will perform. And thanks for watching!
flatbrokeoutside yep i plan on testing it in my backyard if it will ever get cold again, seems like the eternal summer
flatbrokeoutside wind or rain coming under it a problem?
I will be visiting the AT in Sept. We would like to do a thru hike but I have never had that much freedom from work and family. My girlfriend will be hiking with me and she also said that she has always had too many responsibilities to take half a year off. I suspect that many of the hikers are being supported by parents. We are both in our 40s and I suspect our trail names would be grandpa and grandma. Could you give me a idea of how many people like us who hike the AT.
The AT Conservancy website says that in 2014, 2,500 people started a thru hike. Most of them go northbound and the crowded conditions at the trail's southern end in early spring get a lot of attention. And a considerable percentage of those hikers are in their 20s. Not all, however - many are 40 or older, or retired. Probably the young folks gain more new friends and move in larger groups than the older folks. But with every step northward, their numbers dwindle. The ATC says only 653 finished the entire trail in 2014. The ATC also says at least 3 million people use the AT annually. The ratio of 'other' hikers to thru hikers who finish is therefore in excess of 4,500 to 1. I have section hiked in September and met only other section hikers or day hikers, many of them 40 or older. Along most of the trail in late summer, only southbound thru hikers are still at it and their numbers are not high. Those NB thru hikers who manage to do 700 or so miles are the hard working types and I found they tend to stick to themselves and are otherwise courteous. Some of them are probably too tired to say much. The same applies to most young section hikers I met. I plan to do a video later on how great section hiking is, and the great benefits it can have for those of us who have to keep holding down a job at home. Have a great time on the AT! And thanks for watching!
+flatbrokeoutside Thanks for the perspective.
Since watching these videos and the hiker trash videos I have come to realize that with 4 kids, a wife and bills I would be unable to even section hike. Still this has inspired me so much that I am planning a weekend and week hiking trip for myself and my son not more than two hours from house here in Louisiana. Who knew Louisiana had hills and rocks to climb! Saw some pictures and the Kisatchie National Forest is a beautiful place to hike and camp. Flatbrokeoutside thanks for the videos and inspiration!!!
Good info on your clips, but you can totally get weed all along the AT :D
+Mike Daniel Thanks for watching!
i have watch a few video's of 411 missing people and some are on the AP trail just wondering have you developed a opinion or never seen anything out of the normal ?
thanks,BF
+B Footer My opinion is if we stick to the trail on the AT, we should have no fear of disappearing. BUT: If we wander into the trees in some heavily wooded wilderness areas, it's easy to get lost unless we take conscious precautions in advance to avoid it. Easy. And some of those areas are so vast it might take a long time before our corpse is discovered. I looked at the 411 website and noted one book has a chapter on hunters disappearing in Ontario. I hunted 8 years in northern Ontario, making at least one trip a year, up to three weeks at a time. I got lost in a forest covering about 4,000 acres and made it out by the skin of my teeth. If I hadn't made it out when I did, my skull still might be lying out there. I will do a video on this later. In the same area at a different time, another hunter got lost in a forest that covered 600 square miles of nothing, in freezing temperatures. I was camping the same night he disappeared, not too far from where he entered the woods. He had been put in a tree stand by some guides and they found his body two days later. I'll do a video on that story, too. It would be a bad idea to wander deep in the woods along the AT, even if we had a map and a compass and an accurate idea where we are. Not all areas along the AT have cell phone signals. I recently saw the claim that hundreds of people are currently missing along the AT. I checked some databases and found nothing to suggest the number is anywhere that high. Hope this helps and thanks for watching.
+flatbrokeoutside
yes it does help thank you so much for the reply and have a Merry Christmas ....
Cool vid!
Glad you liked it and thanks for watching!
Did you black out there eyes so they couldn't see that you used their picture...? :)
facial recognition software
+ZiggZagg11 Yup. And thanks for watching!
It's in a public area so what's the problem?
you have to pay to hike through the smoky mountains ?
If we want to stay on the trail day and night, yes. $20. smokiespermits.nps.gov/index.cfm?BCPermitTypeID=2 - And thanks for watching.
From my research only 7 of the AT's 13 states honors concealed carry permits, 6 states do not! Pretty much any state North of PA is no go for firearms. I was just curious, I know it is a touchy subject with many hikers, I will do more research and post any new findings. Be safe all. and Thanks
if they dont have concealed permits they should have an open carry type law..right to bears arms doesnt stop at state lines..
+matanuska high *bare
+Mike Conn Why in the world would you want to carry a pistol on the AT?
+John Davis Well John growing up in south philadelphia tends to make a person a bit paranoid. Also I have been on trails and have seen plenty of Bear, and Wolf tracks, did I mention paranoid, And Finally I am still on the fence on the matter myself, hence the question to our dear "Flatbroke'" to enlist the help of more advanced hikers.... so any helpful advice would be appreciated...
Sorry if I sounded a little alarmed at first via my remark. Its not my place to judge. All that being said.... If you keep it properly hidden then the only person who will ever know your packing is you. Theres a 99.9999% chance you will never need it on the AT. Bears are acclimated to hikers now and either run or look at you like your stupid but actual bear attacks that have resulted in major injury or death are unheard of. As far as your fellow hikers, yeah theres some nutjobs, even more now, I believe due to Bill Brysons book being turned into a movie (A Walk In The Woods). I've heard of only two accounts of hiker on hiker violence in the 10 plus years I have been involved in section hiking, being a Trail Angel and following the forums. Both incidents happened within the hikers "hiking group" and one was over theft and one was over a women. Lastly, weight on the trail is your enemy. I dont know what piece your thinking of bringing but steel is heavy. Bullets add weight too. Sounds silly but after your first 100 miles I promise you will re-evaluate your gear and start ditching things you hadn't used to that point. The feeling of personal safety is priceless. If packing is what you need to do to feel safe in the backwoods then far be it me to dictate what you can or cannot do. Just think about what you would do if you did have to discharge it. How would you handle it if you had to shoot another hiker on the trail for whatever reason and there were no witnesses to backup your story.
Awesome videos 👍🏻
Glad you like them! Thanks for watching!
Great Information! Thank You, but why do you black out the peoples eyes . they let you take there pic ? .
They want to forget they ever met me. And thanks for watching.
will I won't ask then , but I thought you said that were friendly , sorry they were that way. take care. good video .anyway.
I apologize - I was making a bad joke. The truth is I met these folks only very briefly and I had no plans at the time of putting their faces in videos so I didn't ask their permission. I feel it would be rude to show their faces, especially the kid who was really drunk. Consider that some thru hikers with youtube channels were hiking with partners but some never showed the hiking partner.
ok .
too bad you dont sell your tent design....it sounds like a keeper....
I appreciate the compliment, but from what I can see on the commercial market floorless designs aren't terribly popular. In my "Homemade tent" video I explain why I said goodbye to tents with floors. And thanks a million for watching!
what we are looking at, here, is a game changer....it just may be that more and more are making the switch....dont give up your dream....after all you may be just ahead of the curve....so to speak...
Sound like a nightmare for those of us seeking solitude.
lol..weed is easier to find than you think.. i know many growers in maine, Massechusettes, pennsylvania,virginia,north carolina,georgia,tennessee....and i live 3000 miles away...some of thse states ive never even been to..but the cannabis community is world wide and small..so we all know each other.
id avoid the drinkers and hang with the stoners..they tend to be more chill relaxed and level headed.
+matanuska high This explains a lot. And thanks again for watching!
tom jackson did your gf leave you for a stoner? cause im a stoner and i dont do any of those things..you got some hatred toward people who use a natural plant..idk where it comes from but you need to work on it..
yeah i guess you havent met smart stoners..they do exist..one of my good buddies is a dentist.my brother is a civil engineer ..i am a cannabis breeder and seed developer. i created my branding web page and strains of cannabis for different flavor and high profiles..but i guess im just some dumb stoner and so are my uccessful stoner ganjaprenuirs and friends.. ca2akgenetics.com you my friend have a very narrow mind.. my dad also owned a multi million dollar multi media production company out of minneapolis. he enjoys cannabis..fuck man i could list hundreds of very intelligent successful people who use cannabis. BTW stupid people are stupid..regardless..if they use cannabis or not...so the fact they use cannabis is no real gage of it makes someone stupid or if they are stupid to begin with.
i dont really get stoned.. i use high CBD cannabis mostly.. once your endo cannabinoid system is fully activated you dont get the "high" sensation like you are thinking..
I wouldn't want to be around the hippie crowd,the ones doing drugs and dancing like I'd imagine Gumby would dance.
2:43 big dog house.
Good stuff to know. I'm planning/training for next year and while I am definitely a social creature, I tire of others quickly (High IQ + Bipolar II = Functioning Sociopath!). I want to do this BY myself, FOR myself.
Have a great hike and thanks for watching!
I think the founding fathers would be ashamed of that sign at 11 :45. So much nanny state authoritarian bs. Early explorers didn't ask for a permit or permission to hunt and make a fire.
Trail magic .... sounds like socialism to me !!! l-)
+justgivemethetruth There's still plenty of free enterprise to be found in stores close to the AT. :) Thanks again for watching.
+flatbrokeoutside
I don't mind a little socialism, I was kidding, I'm as Sanders supporter. Which brings to mind to ask do people ever get into nasty political discussions while hiking or is that left behind in "real" world? Seems to me that national parks, state parks, nature preserves, etc are all a little socialistic ... and they are a good thing. If we did not have them we would all be the poorer off and their would be no trails at all. But my experience in the South is that there are an awful lot of rather extreme right-wingers there ... but do they ever make it to the trails?
justgivemethetruth Incorrect. People offering to help others with food, supplies etc is not socialism.
i hike in part to be away from people
How funny. Just remember., only users lose drugs ! Lol
True enough. :) And thanks for watching!
I can't imagine starting out in the spring in Georgia with a mob of people. So here's this long line of hikers going up the first mountain and so on for miles? For the first hundred miles or so at every sunset dozens of campers prepare for the night. That doesn't sound like a vacation getaway. ... But I would not mind a certain amount of socializing as long as it were meaningful talk. I can't stand hippies and tattoo advocates though.
The AT Conservancy's voluntary thru-hiker registration page is designed to show the number of people signed up to leave Springer on each day. They don't leave it up year-round, but in January '19 it looks like this -- atcamp.org/atthruhikerreports.cfm -- The number of starts really falls off after April 1. And thanks again for watching!
too many people. no thanks
+ergot57 Thanks for watching!